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We've been watching with concern the latest turns in the long-running battle between Keith Henson and the Church of Scientology, arising in part due to online criticism of the Scientologists by Henson and others on the alt.religion.scientology newsgroup.

As it stands now, Henson, an engineer, programmer and long time Church of Scientology critic, is being held in a Prescott, Arizona, county jail awaiting extradition to Riverside, California. Henson was convicted in 2001 of misdemeanor "interfering with a religion" for picketing in front of a Scientology "base" in Hemet, CA. The ruling was roundly criticized as inconsistent with Henson's First Amendment rights to criticize Scientology: Henson was not permitted by the judge to offer an explanation of why he was picketing, for example, and one part of the evidence used against him appears to be based on an online joke made on Usenet about actor Tom Cruise and "cruise missiles."

Today, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Silvestre Reyes announced [PDF] plans for hearings on the NSA spying program. Investigations of this still-shadowy surveillance are long overdue, and we're hopeful that this is only the beginning of vigorous Congressional oversight.

In particular, Reyes' stated intention to dig into the telecommunications companies' role is encouraging. EFF has been fighting hard in the courts to hold AT&T accountable for violating its customers privacy and the law, and Congress must fulfill its duty to help uncover the truth about the telcos' collaboration with the government

There was some Slashdot buzz earlier this week about Microsoft Windows Media Center users suddenly facing restrictions forbidding playback of recorded analog cable TV content. Was DRM smuggled along with an "update" into unsuspecting users' machines?

In recent weeks a community of enthusiasts has developed a useful, and impressive, set of unauthorized enhancements to the Apple TV. These enhancements make this product work better for end users, and they exist in a great tradition of user innovation in which users who care about a product (and understand their own needs and desires) figure out how to make that product do something more. (The same kind of activity thrives around game console systems, and, of course, the TiVo -- sometimes to the chagrin of TiVo, Inc.)

Should ordinary Americans face jail time for attempted copyright infringement? Should the sort of property forfeiture penalties applied in drug busts also threaten P2P users, mixtape makers, and mash-up artists? Of course not, but the Department of Justice (DoJ) has drafted [PDF] an outrageous legislative proposal that applies these severe penalties and much more. Take action now to stop it.

Responding to Congressional pressure, the major label-backed licensing authority SoundExchange has offered small webcasters a temporary reprieve from the Copyright Royalty Board's outrageous royalty rate increase. This is a step in the right direction, but it still doesn't solve any of the underlying problems with the current licensing system. Music webcasting's future still hangs in the balance.

The offer announced today would essentially extend the much more reasonable statutory licensing terms that small webcasters have relied on for the last five years. But commercial services like Pandora and Live365 are still in deep trouble, as are small webcasters that may want to expand their business over time. And when SoundExchange's offer expires in 2010, small webcasters may once again be threatened with extinction.

On the heels of a letter from House Judiciary Committee leaders, Senate Judiciary Committee's heads Patrick Leahy and Arlen Specter wrote to the Attorney General demanding information about the illegal NSA domestic spying program:

"The Committee on the Judiciary is charged with overseeing and legislating on constitutional protections, civil and criminal justice, civil liberties, and the Judiciary, all subjects that this matter impacts. We intend to do our job.